


Kissing Practice

by telethia



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bisexual Adrien Agreste, Multi, alix makes a bet with kim and everyone ends up joining in, and of course he's clueless about the whole thing, i just wanted to try to write a fic with multiple pairings and this happened i guess, too bad that said bet includes managing to kiss pretty model boy adrien agreste
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 10:48:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13386222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telethia/pseuds/telethia
Summary: Nino knew he would have some catching-up to do after missing three days of school.He expected extra homework, maybe a test or two that he would have to take while his classmates continued on with their work, but he couldn't possibly have imagined that the whole class would suddenly be after his friend Adrien because of a dumb bet, as he couldn't possibly have known that said bet would involve kissing Adrien and winning over his best bud's heart.And the worst thing was- Adrien hadn't noticed any of it.





	Kissing Practice

**Author's Note:**

> why do I even try writing comedy…. I’m not funny and i don’t know how to write it.
> 
> actually, im not a native english speaker, so you could say that i don’t know how to write in english PERIOD. please forgive my mistakes.

Disaster was a common occurrence in College Françoise Dupont.

Alya liked to think that everyone in her class had some sense of security when it came to establishing  _what_ the source of the imminent calamity - an akuma, usually - could be. The students had somewhat trained themselves to the weekly weird occurrences that endangered their safety, and learnt not to blame the victims of someone else's mischief. Everyone easily forgot a friend’s angry outbursts, whether they consisted in akumatisations or some stupid petty act, if they had been previously provoked by someone else.

When it came down to those who _caused_ the victims’ outbursts, however, the students were not nearly as forgiving. In a world where upsetting your schoolmate could potentially endanger your life, jerks were really not well respected.

Needless to say, her classmate Chloé was the officially recognised pest of the school, and the number one source of pretty much every disaster in her class, which was why everyone kept her at a distance. The girl had a reputation of broken hearts and hysteric cries trailing behind her, alongside with a whole collection of petty insults and mean comments that everyone with a little brain would have done anything to avoid.

What most people seemed to ignore, however, was that there were plenty of other individuals in her class who were just as ready to create trouble.

Her classmate Ivan often got into fights because of his permanently pissed off face and overall uncaring attitude towards strangers. The boy was also known for not holding back against those who angered him, and the nurse’s office was at times filled with grumpy, injured teenagers for each day of the week.

Max was not any better. As the official nerdy know-it-all of the class, he made everyone around him go insane. The guy had drastically improved on his people-skills after having competed with Marinette in that video game tournament, but Alya had been at the verge of strangling him more often than she would have liked to admit.

And then, last but certainly not least, were Alix and Kim. They differed from the others, as they worked to upset everyone around them as a duo, even if accidentally. The fact was, their dumb bets usually managed to involve the entire class in some way, usually transforming into something that was always a pain to fix.

Today was no exception to that. Alya could hear the two of them at the back of the class, talking to one another, and could assume from their tone of voice that they were challenging each other. Again.

Even if she would have very much liked to smack them both to just shut them up and avoid a catastrophe, she refrained from doing so: class was about to start, and Alya prayed that the bell would have been enough to silence the two troublemakers at least for today.

All her hopes were shattered when she realised that Kim had decided to come talk to her, and had positioned himself next to the two desks that her and Marinette occupied.

He eyed the Nino’s and Adrien’s desks, both empty because of Nino’s quick visit to the bathroom and Adrien’s… _something._  She didn’t know where he was, Nino hadn’t mentioned anything about his buddy when he arrived.

“Where’s Adrien?” Kim asked the two girls, still throwing glances at the back of the class.

“He’s at a photoshoot,” Marinette answered, because  _of course she would know where he was._ “He’s coming to school during chemistry, I think.”

“Why do you ask?” Alya suddenly cut in. She knew that Kim probably wanted something from the boy, and that she was probably not going to like it one bit. She figured that cutting to the chase was going to make her torture last a little less, and, as an aspiring reporter, rapid access to relevant information was very much of her liking. “You need to tell him something?”

“We can pass on a message if you want,” sweet, blissfully unaware Marinette offered.

He let out a fake, loud laugh and assumed a dramatic pose, resting one hand on Marinette’s desk. “I’m asking because Alix was just talking about how many people ask to hook up with her,” he said, raising his voice. “And I wondered, since she seems to be so good at attracting all kinds of boys, she surely will manage to get a solid making-out session with France’s hottest teenage boy, right?”

In the blink of an eye, Alix had joined them, standing dangerously close to her rival. Her entire frame was shaking with anger, and Alya feared that she would have attacked the boy at any minute. Despite that, she watched as Alix’s anger gave birth to a cocky grin.

“Of course I could manage that if I wanted to,” her small eyes threw daggers at Kim. “ _You_  could, too, right? I mean, just five minutes ago you were just talking about how your seduction techniques are  _‘universally effective’_  and  _‘foolproof.’”_  Kim paled, but Alix gave him no room to speak, looking like she was enjoying every second of the boy’s horror. “Unless you are one of those chickens that don’t kiss boys. Or maybe you just realised that he’s out of your league?”

Alya’s eyebrows shot to her forehead, the realisation that Alix was going to turn the whole  _kissing Adrien_  thing into the subject of her dumb bet finally kicking in.

Kim’s face turned from shocked to furious. “I could get that boy to kiss me in the blink of an eye if I wanted to! Tell you what, he would probably be begging me for more later since I’m  _such_  a good kisser!”

“Ha,” she spat. “I’d like to see  _that one_  happening.”

“You  _will_ ,” Kim’s smirk mimicked Alix’s, and reached for his pocket.

Alya didn’t even need to follow his movements to know what was coming.

He slammed a bill on the table. “5 euros that I can kiss him first.”

With the promptness of someone who had done this too many times for her own good, Alix did the same. “10 that I can beat you at that.”

Well, Alya had to  _at least_  acknowledge the fact that the two were getting somewhat creative. Usually their bets consisted in racing from one place to another or involved something physical, like a test of strength or endurance. This bet, however? This required planning, strategy, and actual _thinking._  Adrien Agreste, precious model boy who was used to people wanting to do all kinds of things to him, who had personal experience with the exhaustingly clingy Chloé Bourgeois, was not going to be willing to kiss neither Alix or Kim so easily. Alya even found the whole bet amusing, since she knew that the two were going to fail miserably, and she was looking forward to snapping some amazing pictures to save for later in the meanwhile.

Both Alix and Kim also seemed to realise how difficult what they had promised to do was; Alya could almost see their minds race for a quick solution to the mess they had gotten themselves into. 

Someone else, however, was taking the whole thing under a different perspective. Alya would have been lying if she said that she didn’t expect Marinette to react badly to the situation, but she could have never imagined that she would turn grey, all colour draining from her face.

Her eyes were glassy, her gaze unfocused and her mouth was sealed shut. The mere image of having someone kissing Adrien was too much for her to handle, and her mind had decided to completely shut down as a consequence.

It was for her friend’s sake that she decided to try and persuade her classmates to let go of their bet.

“Guys,” she made sure that they both were looking at her as she spoke. “You can’t be serious about doing this.”

Alix gave her a confused look. “Why not?”

“Yeah, why not?” Kim echoed her.

“Because,” she worked quickly to find a valid reason why their bet needed to be stopped, and was relieved when she actually did. “You could be trying to force the guy to kiss you, and that’s all kinds of messed up. If he were a girl everyone would be freaking out about this because this is pretty much  _planning sexual harassment_.”

“Wait, what the hell?” a wave of horror and disgust washed over Alix’s face. “No no no, you got it all wrong. The entire point of this bet is to charm the guy and convince him to kiss one of us. We need to get his consent first.”

“We don’t want to force him to kiss us, duh! That’d be mean!” Kim caught on, crossing his arms over his chest almost as if he had been offended by what Alya had said. “Besides, I don’t need to force him to kiss me. You’ll see, he’ll be all over me after I’m done with him.”

Alix elbowed him in the stomach, causing the boy to almost bend in half. The girl had a reputation for being small and deadly, everyone seemed to forget that way too easily in their class. “What Kim is trying to say is,” she said. “We are not going to force Adrien to do anything. I don’t think it even crossed our minds that we could have done something so bad for an easy win. I mean, sure, it is a sort of race between the two of us and who can get model boy to kiss them first but… we would never do something like that.”

Alya sulked. The two of them were not mean, she knew that, but they were also extremely impulsive and got easily angered; she wasn’t sure she could trust them so easily. Also, the fact that they weren’t planning to force Adrien to do anything didn’t necessarily make their bet any less evil.

“That doesn’t change anything!” Marinette managed to get out through gritted teeth. Alya was actually surprised to see that she had recovered from her initial shock. Instead of drowning in her own self-pity, she was now worried over the person she cared the most for. “You are still trying to seduce Adrien for your own purposes,” she stood up as she spoke. There was newfound anger within her: she had begun to realise just how horrible a bet like this was towards someone as sensitive and sweet as Adrien. “With or without his consent, that’s just cruel! You are playing with his feelings as if they were nothing, it’s messed up!”

Alix was at a loss for words. She stayed quiet as her brows furrowed just enough for Alya to notice her worry. She probably hadn’t realised just how wrong things could have gone if she acted too carelessly, or how she could have hurt Adrien’s feelings.

Alya didn’t personally see the whole thing as badly as Marinette did, and thought that a couple of kisses would not cause harm to the guy. The bet in itself was not so nice, but… they were French, for heaven’s sake. If there was anything they were comfortable with, it had to be kissing.

Kim apparently shared her same opinion.

“It’s just a kiss, he’ll be fine,” he said with a shrug. “And besides, it’s not like we’re trying to make him fall in love with us or anything. It’s more like... uh… causal making out sessions, you know? That’s what we had in mind.”

Marinette gave him a look. “And you think Adrien is going to be fine with that?”

“Yeah, uh… and how do you know...” Kim was grasping at straws now, not really knowing what he was saying. “How do you know that he is not okay with that?”

“What?” Marinette asked, almost sounding offended.

“I mean… the guy’s a new entry in the class, and it’s not like any one of us know him really well apart from, you know, Nino.” the boy was on the defensive and was clearly scared of Marinette’s murderous vibe, but he objectively had a good point. “How can you know that he isn’t okay with casually making out with me or Alix?”

Marinette was baffled. Her mouth closed and opened a couple of times, but she failed to get out a comprehensible sound because of how outraged she was. “Adrien is  _not_  that kind of guy!”

“...he’s a guy, Marinette,” Alix was back, ready to support her rival now that she had decided to agree on his perspective on things. She still was not her confident usual self, but her attitude was back, much to Marinette’s disliking. “They are all  _‘that kind of guy.’_ ”

Alix was getting kind of sexist there, but what she was saying was not necessarily untrue. Most people, guys or girls, would be rather okay with getting free making out sessions if offered the chance. That was why clubs were so popular, wasn’t it? It wasn’t like Alya would know anything about them, she had tried sneaking into one a couple of times but no one had ever let her in because of her age, but it wasn’t hard to imagine what happened in there other than dancing and getting intoxicated.

“Well, he isn’t.” Marinette sulked. “He’s kind and sweet, and I don’t think that he would be comfortable with something like this. Right, Alya?”

Hearing her friend asking for her opinion was enough to make her freeze.

Did she think that Adrien was the kind of guy who would have enjoyed a bet of this type? No.

Did she know him enough to actually be sure of her answer? Again, no.

_She was so screwed._

“Yeah, he’d probably hate this,” she said, and Alix and Kim must have somehow sensed the insecurity in her voice because they gave her an odd look.

She wanted to help her friend, she really did, but things were getting more complex by the minute and the young reporter wasn’t sure that she could have kept backing Marinette up for much longer. Whilst Kim was not necessarily a threat to Marinette’s objective, Alix was smart, and could easily find counterarguments to object her.

At the corner of her vision, Alya managed to see someone approaching their little group.

“Ohhh, we are betting money here. Nice.”

Alya welcomed the newcomer with relief, hoping that they could somehow make the situation a little easier on both her and her best friend. She was surprised, however, when she saw Rose standing just behind Kim, accompanied by Juleka, who seemed to have just joined her friend.

She eyed the money before looking up at them, confused but slightly amused. “So… what’s up, guys? What’s the money for?”

“The money is for a bet. These two,” Marinette started as she pointed at Kim and Alix. “Are challenging each other over who can manage to kiss Adrien first.” She seemed furious, but Alya knew her friend better than to believe that she was going to let her anger get the best of her. Marinette was smart; she was probably going to try to involve Rose and Juleka to discourage Alix and Kim from going through with their bet.

Her suspicions were confirmed as she continued her explanation.

“They say that they won’t force him or anything, but… Can you believe it? What they are trying to do is so, so mean and Adrien won’t like it at all and just- what went through their minds to make them think that this was a good idea?”

A glance was shot at her. Alya rolled her eyes, but decided to support her friend anyways.  _Oh, the things that she had done for Marinette…_  Honestly, she deserved some sort of award. The girl was a sweetheart, but she could also be pretty damn difficult.

“It  _is_  pretty weird. Kissing someone because of a bet is something that I think I can understand, but I don’t think Adrien is the right kind of person to involve in this.”

She briefly looked over her shoulder only to meet a satisfied Marinette. Their exchange was brief, however, as they both turned to Rose, awaiting her response.

Nobody could disagree with Rose. If she thought that something was unfair or mean, she was the first to speak up to contrast it and she was really too sweet or innocent for anybody with a heart to object with what she had to say. She held a sort of power over the class and, while it was unknown whether she was aware of said fact or not, everyone seemed to always trust her to do the right thing.

It was because of that that Alix and even Kim seemed to be anxious for her to state her opinion on the matter at hand.

The blonde seemed thoughtful for a moment, but then smiled. “This seems like fun! How do I join?”

Several mouths dropped. Alya blinked, unsure whether she had heard her friend correctly or not. Rose? Sweet, kind Rose? Agreeing on a bet that included competing over kissing one of their classmates?

_What kind of nightmare was this?_

Kim was the quickest one to recover from their stupor. “You can’t join!” a wave of uncertainty washed over him. He turned to Alix. “I mean… can she?”

The pink haired girl sighed loudly. Her eyes were wide opened, and she seemed confused. “I… I don’t know. But if she wants to, I guess she can. This means more competition, but I don’t particularly mind. Or at least not that much.”

Kim smirked at that. “I’m not worried about that. I’m still pretty sure I’ll win.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Casanova.” Alix rolled her eyes. She then placed one hand on her hip, offering the other expectantly to Rose.

The girl giggled as she got a hold of her wallet, handling Alix a 5 euros bill. “I’m so excited! Adrien seems so nice!” With a little jump, she turned to face her friend. “What do you say, Juleka? Want to give it a try as well?”

Pink spread across her white cheeks as the girl looked down, seeming unsure. “I… umh… Adrien’s… pretty nice, so… maybe. Yeah.”

“Yay!” Rose squealed. She got ahold of Juleka’s hands, bringing them close to her chest. “Our  _duo_ can become a  _trio!_  How amazing would that be? The both of us having a cute, nice boyfriend?”

Her girlfriend didn’t answer, but instead focused on their tangled fingers as she nodded, a small smile appearing on her lips. Juleka wasn’t one for words, and it wasn’t like Rose needed her to talk in order to actually understand her.

It was only after Juleka herself had given Alix another 5 euros bill that Alya managed to snap out of her daze. She had known that Juleka and Rose were a couple and, while the fact that they were willing to have another person take part in their relationship had come as a surprise to her, that wasn’t what had shocked her.

“You are okay with this?” she asked, incredulous. She honestly would have never predicted that Rose could accept so easily a bet such as Alix’s. A brief glance over to Marinette told her that she was just as amazed as she was. In fact, the girl was petrified now, completely at a loss for what to do.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Rose put a little distance between herself and Juleka to better face her, to her girlfriend’s disappointment.

“This could hurt Adrien’s feelings!” Marinette suddenly cut in. She was getting desperate, and Alya didn’t know whether her actions were driven by her own jealousy or her worry over Adrien. “How can you not think of that?”

“Seriously? I thought we had gone over this already,” Alix commented.

“Don’t be so negative, Mari!” Rose said before anyone could add anything more to Alix’s words. “No one here is mean, so there’s nothing to worry about!”

“I wouldn’t exactly call people who bet money over someone’s feelings  _nice_ , you know?” Marinette spat.

“Dude, you’ve got to chill,” Alix was getting nervous now. Alya had been actually surprised by how calmy she had handled her friend’s accusations until now, as she knew that the skater was well-known in her class for her short temper. It now seemed that she had reached her limit. Her hands were on her hips, her body leaning towards where Marinette was. “How many times am I going to have to repeat this? We are going to need his consent to kiss him and we are not going to hurt him in any way, all right? Tell you what, we’ll make this a rule. If anyone breaks it, they automatically lose. Happy now?”

That... did sound a little better, actually. Hearing Alix turning this into a rule had reassured Alya a little.

Marinette, however, did not seem to be relieved in the slightest. She was biting her lip, fists closed. The idea of having somebody flirting with Adrien was probably unbearable to her, and Alya sympathised a little with her. She was persistent, and not ready to go down as of yet: she was ready to still fight for Adrien, fuelled by jealousy and worry.

Rose smiled at her, and it was a smile so sweet that Alya had to wonder how Marinette could not soften at its sight. “See? Everyone here cares about Adrien. Nobody would ever hurt him.”

“No one will even have a chance with him, so don’t worry,” Kim winked at an unamused Marinette. “I’ll take good care of him, I swear!”

He was quickly elbowed in the stomach again, Alix reminding everybody that not only she could land a hit pretty well, but she could also do it  _fast_.

“Maybe Rose will beat you, Kim.” Juleka offered. “She’s cute, she’s smart, and she’s also the sweetest person you could ever meet. You’ve got your competition cut out for you.”

“Daaaaaaaw! You are so cute, Juleka!” Rose threw herself at her girlfriend, and the other held her eagerly in a tight hug. “Who knows, maybe it might be you who wins Adrien’s heart! You are amazing, and he likes you quite a bit already, doesn’t he? He was hugging you in the class photos and he made sure that you were comfortable the whole time!”

“He was just being nice… He doesn’t like me in that way,” she averted her eyes, cheeks flushing red.

“Okay, enough with the lovey-dovey chit-chat please,” Alix interrupted. “You are going to make me vomit.”

“Can’t handle some good old mutual love, Alix?” Kim promptly teased her, earning a glare from the short girl. “How do you even expect to win?”

“Romance doesn’t have to be cheesy, you dumbass. Besides, you have other stuff you should worry about. _”_

“Like what?” the boy assumed a confident posture, chin raised slightly as he eyed his rival. “Pretty sure I got this one in the bag.”

“Really?” Alix shrugged. “I guess you don’t need any help figuring out if Adrien’s into dudes or not, then.”

Kim’s eyes widened and his face paled, and Alya had the impression that he had never even considered Adrien’s sexuality to be a problem. Somehow, this was a sum of the boy’s character: he was impulsive and competitive to the point that he would completely forget about anything that wasn’t involved with his own person and showing that he was better. Kim wasn’t mean or bad to be around of, but this flaw of his was hard to ignore, and Alix had taken full advantage of it.

“Y-you don’t know if he’s into chicks, either!” Kim attempted to seem confident. He was trying to use a similar tactic to the one he had used on Marinette, but Alix’s smirk was enough to crush all his hopes.

“What do you know.  _‘How do you even expect to win?’_ ” she quoted him.

Useless bickering filled the class after that, catching the attention of some other people in the room. Mylène looked worriedly at Alix at Kim a couple of times, distracted from her chat with Ivan by their loud arguing, and Max adjusted his glasses, looking up from his phone every now and then. Even Nathaniel had bothered to glance away from the paper sitting on his desk, the sound of his pencil scratching the flat surface stopping altogether as he forgot about drawing just for one moment.

The two had fallen into a long and worthless discussion over who was going to win, and Alya found herself not particularly entertained by it, unlike Marinette, whose face turned dark with each of their words. Fights like this were common, and her journalistic spirit had different needs, requesting for her to ask Rose to further explain her motivations. Even after having discussed with her and having seen how excited she was at the thought of the bet, it was still hard to believe that Rose was agreeing to such a thing.

“I still don’t understand,” she approached her to have a more private conversation with her. “You have faith in our classmates and in the fact that they won’t ‘use’ Adrien, that I can kind of respect.” She was not going to pretend that she trusted Kim or Alix. The two had done nothing to deserve her blind trust, even though she did like them very much and thought of them as fun to be around of. “Honestly, though? I wouldn’t have expected you to agree with this whole thing, Rose.”

“It’s okay for you and Marinette to not get it. You’re too worried about him to see this bet under a good light,” the blonde’s smile softened. “Especially Mari.”

Alya’s eyebrows shot to her forehead. She had almost forgotten how perceptive Rose was when it came to those things; it would have been impossible for her to miss their apprehension and, as she said, Marinette’s excessive protectiveness of Adrien.

“Adrien’s shy, Alya,” Rose started explaining herself probably because of her classmate’s puzzled expression. “And… that makes it hard to get close to him.”

“That’s not the word I would use,” Juleka butted in, appearing behind Rose out of nowhere. The girl had the ability of disappearing at any given moment just like a ghost. “He’s…  _reserved_ , not shy. But Rose’s right,” she glanced over to her girlfriend, eyes now completely focused on her as she talked. “He’s kind and talks to pretty much everybody in the class, but he never really lets you into his personal bubble.” Her attention suddenly shifted over to Alya, and her spark of confidence seemed to disappear. “Y-you know him better than me of course, but that’s what I think.”

“He’s been here for a while now,” Rose catched on, eyes still locked on Juleka. She seemed worried all of a sudden, something that Alya wasn’t sure she understood. “But nobody here really knows anything about him. We that know he’s nice and smart, that he’s a model, and that he’s the son of Gabriel Agreste. That’s pretty much everything Adrien has let us learn about him. Nobody here apart from maybe Nino knows his favourite colour, or his favourite food, or the kind of music he listens to, or when he’s happy or sad.”

Juleka noticed her concern, and moved closer, her hand searching for Rose’s.

The girl was sad as she concluded her reasoning.

“ _We don’t know him.”_

Her words hit Alya hard. She collected her thoughts, trying to understand what she knew about Adrien Agreste herself, and came up with lots of answers, only to realise that he had never been the one to tell her any of them.

Adrien liked all kinds of music, from classical to rock.  _Nino_  had pointed that out one day while he and Alya listened to his playlist, while commenting on how he was surprised to see Adrien enjoy some of his favourite songs.

Adrien’s favourite colour was green. She had passed in front of a shop one day, and  _Nino_  had stopped her to point at a shirt that was apparently his friend’s favourite colour, even suggesting of buying it as birthday present for him in advance.

Adrien did not have a favourite food, but was a glutton for sweets.  _Nino_  had told her how often he and the model would share snacks bought at the vending machine during recess, and of how Adrien always ended up choosing the unhealthiest ones for them to eat.

Adrien had trouble at home with his dad. After a choked sob and a shaky breath,  _Nino_  had managed to share with her the reasons behind his akumatization and his hatred for his friend’s father one day, and his hands had shaken while holding the cup of coffee that they had ordered together.

Everything that she knew about her classmate came from what Nino decided to share with her about him. She talked to him every day, multiple times a day for five times a week in person, and seven times a week via texting, and yet he would have still remained a stranger to her if it wasn’t for Nino.

_She didn’t know him, either._

She wanted to curse at Adrien and at his stupidity.

How long did he plan to keep her and Marinette out? How long did he think he could last without more than one person that could support him? It was true that Nino was a dedicated friend who was more than ready to sacrifice his own time for Adrien, but he was human: he couldn’t  _always_  be there for him, the time would come when he was going to be busy or unable to answer his phone.

“That’s why I think this bet is a good thing,” Rose had put herself back together now, and blinded Alya with one of her usual smiles. “I know that betting money over something that involves your friend isn’t nice, but...I think this is a chance to get to know Adrien better! And who knows, since everyone has got a bit of a crush on him in this class, maybe some new love will blossom!”

This had been for Adrien’s sake all along, then. And of course, it was also for the sake of the love and romance that Rose so much adored. The fact that she believed that the whole class was crushing on the model was worrisome to some extent, not for Adrien himself, but rather for Marinette. Alya promised herself to never tell her best friend what she just had been told; she knew she wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

She was about to add something to Rose’s opinion, maybe offering her understanding and worry on what was going to happen, but was interrupted by a sudden shout.

Kim and Alix had been going at it for a while with their bickering, rising their volume progressively as they yelled at one another who was the best and who was going to win.

Kim, however, seemed to be the one that overdid it this time, shouting so loud that everybody in the class jumped in their seats, startled.

“YOU’LL NEVER GET A CHANCE AT KISSING ADRIEN, OKAY? I’LL WIN! GET OVER YOURSELF!”

There was silence in the class after that. Seven pairs of eyes blinked, confused beyond belief, while the remaining four grieved at their friend’s stupidity.

“ _What?”_

Alya shivered as she turned towards Chloé, who had just finished shaping her nails.

_“What did you just say about Adrien?”_

She looked furious, which was quite predictable of her considering the situation. She had just heard someone yell the words ‘kiss’ and ‘Adrien,’ which were two things that no one in the class should have ever even mentioned in front of her if they didn’t want to create chaos. Chloé was the only person in the class who shouldn’t have known about Alix’s bet. Her stupid, incapable brain had decided that Adrien was of her property, and Alya knew that she was going to defend that claim with her teeth if necessary.

She held back a frustrated sigh. The damage was done now, but that didn’t mean that Alya was not going to try and stop the girl from trying to hurt Adrien and the others.

_You need to keep your head straight for this,_ she told herself.  _Don’t lash out at her like you usually would._

Chloé approached her desk now, and eyed the 20 euros with her usual, frustrating annoyed look of hers. “Excuse me? What’s the money for?”

Alya’s intention of keeping herself calm was thrown out of the window after she spoke. Hearing the girl’s voice, witnessing her bitchy attitude as she stood next to her while believing that she was better than anyone else had been enough to remind her just of  _how much she hated her._

“It’s none of your business, Chloé!” she snapped.

The blonde raised an eyebrow at her. “When my sweet Adrikins is involved, it automatically becomes my business. And you did talk about him, didn’t you?”

“If Alya said that it’s none of your business, then it’s none of your business,” Marinette broke in, suddenly taking her friend’s side. “Get lost, Chloé.”

“No need to be rude, Marinette,” Chloé simply smirked at the two of them, almost as if she was pitying them. “I mean, it’s not like you guys need to be nice to me or something. I’m just the mayor’s daughter, and my papa happens to be really good friends with the principal. And oh!” her eyes lit up, faking surprise. She was enjoying teasing them to no end, and Alya wanted nothing more than punching her in the face. “Are you guys maybe handling money on the school property without the permission of our teacher? That has to be breaking some kind of rule, right?”

“What, you know the school rules now?” Alya clapped right back, hand resting on her hip. “Because that involves  _reading,_  and we both know that’s something you don’t do as often as you should.”

She managed to catch Alix slowly turning around, her hand reaching for her mouth as she choked out a  _“ohhhhh snap!”_  between giggles.

“Very funny, four-eyes.” Chloé was sulking, clearly not amused by her comeback.

_Oh, she hadn’t even gotten started yet._

“It’s 2018 and you are still using that ‘four-eyes’ insult? What are you, a Disney channel original movie antagonist?”

This time, it was Marinette who opened her mouth wide open, looking at her with adoring eyes. Alya must have been her idol right now, since her words had caused Chloé’s face to turn into the ugliest sulk anyone in the class had ever seen her making. Plus, an angry Chloé could only make the class president happy.

Chloé  _growled._  “I asked a simple question, and you refused to answer me. Which means you are hiding something, something that involves  _Adrien_. I am _not_  going to allow you to get away with it.”

“You should be scared,” Sabrina came to aid her friend, standing loyally beside her. “Chloé will get the principal involved and you will all be suspended! And if you are wondering if he’ll believe her… he will! You guys look like you are up to something, with all that money to share between yourselves! It’s almost like you were doing an illegal bet or something like that, so the principal will see right through you!”

The blonde’s face twisted, anger making place for astonishment, and Alya knew that Chloé’s little brain had caught up with their plan.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, and she was almost laughing. “You are making a bet over who manages to kiss Adrien first?”

Nobody managed to really answer her. The part of the class that had been uninvolved until now seemed surprised, perhaps even mildly disturbed by what Chloé had said, but said nothing and limited themselves to look at their friends. Others, the ones who had been hoping for something like this to never happen, had serious worry written all over their faces.

Juleka and Rose nervously looked at one another, hoping to find something to say in each other’s eyes, while Kim looked wide-eyed, and stared at the blonde with fear.

Of course, fear was not something that Alya would ever allow someone like Chloé to see in her. She stood with her hands still resting comfortably on her hips, showing mild annoyance, which was honestly all that that girl was going to get from her, and sulked. Alix had to be of a similar opinion, as she simply limited herself to sigh in frustration, massaging her temples with a  _“don’t want to deal with this_ ” fashion. Marinette had also moved forward now, and all doubt regarding the bet had been clearly put aside for the moment. Her expression was serious and dark, which was something that everyone in the class had only managed to see when she would confront Chloé.

“First of all, kissing is a consequence of the bet, you have to manage to  _charm the guy first_ ,” Alix explained, probably because she felt like that point hadn’t been stressed enough already. “Second of all, what we or Adrien do is none of your business, so just stop talking and do everyone a favour, will you?”

The blonde narrowed her eyes, but kept smiling regardless. “We’ll see if the principal thinks the same way _._  I think I’ll have a lot of explaining to do to him, so I won’t be shutting up for a long time,  _piglet.”_

The skater turned towards her friends. “Did she just fucking threaten me?”

“She’s been doing that for the past minute or so,” Alya sighed. “She also called you ‘piglet,’ which is probably the most creative she’s gotten with her insults in a while.”

Fury ran through Alix eyes, and Alya knew that there was no way that this discussion was not going to end in the principal’s office or in the hospital. The outcome of Alix’s anger was always hard to foresee, but it was not hard to see an outburst (possibly not one that had to do with a life-threatening akuma this time) coming. Not that Alya was going to lift a finger to stop that from happening, of course. She was willing to accept a suspension or a broken leg as long as Alix gave the blonde a piece of her mind and made it worth the while.

“Maybe she called you like the pig from Winnie the Pooh.” Juleka argued. She didn’t sound too sure, but she was trying to help.

“It’s a childish insult,” Marinette said, putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Which would only help proving Alya’s point: Chloé needs to stay away from all kinds of Disney media for a while.”

“Piglets are actually super cute!” Rose added. “They are so pink!”

Maybe Rose and the others had hoped to help their friend with their comments, trying to tell the skater that the insult was not so bad after all, but Alix had already made up her mind. Her entire frame just stiffened for a second, only for her to remove Marinette’s hand from her shoulder with a calm that did not belong to her.

In the blink of an eye, she pounced forward. Her right fist almost brushed Chloé’s shoulder before she was actually caught by Kim, who knew the girl and had probably been expecting something like that from her. He soon found out that holding back someone like Alix had its price: the girl kicked and punched, struggling like a wild beast, and the boy had to endure her blows while trying to not cry out in pain.

“Let go of me!” Alix roared. “Let me go, Kim!”

Chloé snickered, clearly amused by the girl’s reaction. “Trying to attack me as well? Pretty sure the principal won’t be happy about that, either.”

“Why are you doing this?” Rose suddenly butted in. She held her hands close to her chest, and her big blue eyes were pleading for some understanding. “Why are you being so mean, Chloé?”

Unfortunately for her, that was not something that you could obtain from Chloé. Everyone around her seemed to know about the blonde’s selfish nature, but Rose had either decided to ignore that fact or was genuinely unaware of the girl’s character.

Alya could understand Rose. She had expected Chloé to react badly to the news of the bet herself, but involving the principal or even the Mayor was simply unnecessary. Marinette had also had a not-so-different reaction from the bully’s after learning about the bet, but she had  _not_  threatened to get a good part of the class suspended; she had tried to talk everybody into giving up on it instead. There was a difference, and a huge one at that.

There was no excuse for Chloé’s choice of behaviour. She just  _had_  to be unpleasant and mean, and revelled in the power she thought she had on the others.

“I am not being mean. This is what you all  _deserve_ ,” Chloé said. “People like you should never, ever, EVER think about getting your filthy hands on someone like Adrien. Especially since you are not worth his time.”

“ _Excuse me?”_

She could see Alix struggle even harder against Kim’s grip, a mix of  _‘let me get to that bitch!”_  and various whimpers filling the air. Alya turned around just in time to see Alix head-butting her captor on the chin, freeing herself and rushing just next to where she stood. Everyone stared with fear – and admiration and approval from Alya’s part – at the skater, who bared her teeth at Chloé.

“Because you  _are_?” her tone was angry and rude, but the girl kept her place, and did not take another step closer to where Sabrina and her friend were. Alix wasn’t one who needed to use physical violence in order to be scary: the girl had a preference for using brute force with people like Kim, but she was able to make you pee your pants after a good yelling just as well. Alya  _loved_ her for that. “You never gave anyone a chance to believe that you are good at anything other than messing with people, Chloé!”

The bully stepped back, and hesitated. She hid whatever little she was feeling behind a dumb, sickening eye-roll. “I don’t need to prove anything to people like you.”

Thankfully, Alix was nowhere near done with her.

“Oh no, now you fucking do,” she snarled. “You threaten and insult everyone in this class like it’s right for you to do so. You walk in here every single day as if you fucking owned the place, you make sure that everyone has their turn at feeling like utter scum. You tell yourself that you are better, that we ‘ _deserve this_.’”

She paused. Someone might have said that it might have been because of what she had just said and because of how much it had hurt her to call out a bully like Chloé on something that included her as well.

But Alya knew better.

Alix hissed and turned her anger on the floor, stomping on it with a strength that made everyone else flinch. She started shouting, her self-restraint abandoning her with every second.

“So  _fucking prove it!”_ Her hands were at her sides, fists closed and her whole body rigid as a maddening red adorned her cheeks. “Prove to me that you are better than me at something, prove that you are not only good at making shit up, prove that Adrien is actually madly in love with you as you say!”

The whole class watched breathlessly as Chloé paled. Her eyes were fixed on Alix, and there was more emotion behind them than Alya had ever seen before. She was angry, but not just any kind of angry: her fury was usually petty and short-sighted, lasting very little. Chloé hated people, spoke up to them, and was not forgiving to anybody who she felt had wronged her, but she didn’t get  _upset_. And she was now.

“Stop hiding behind daddy dearest and grow a pair, show me what you really got!”

Alix’s truthful words shook her. The blonde waited a moment before narrowing her eyes, and turned on her heels. She headed towards her desk, and surprisingly ignored the skater’s sound of disapproval as she fled their argument. Alya thought that she would sit down in her seat, that for once the girl had had enough of arguing or had simply not come up with anything to say back, but Chloé’s hands shoot for her bag.

“You are asking me to participate to your bet to prove myself?” she turned to face them again, holding her wallet. “If you put it that way, then I accept.”  

Her usual smile had returned, and Alya really felt like punching her again.

“I won’t go to the principal, and I’ll even join you idiots in this stupid bet.” Her blue eyes narrowed as her fingers traced the patterns of her Vuitton’s wallet. “And of course, I will  _win_.”

Everyone watched with awe as a 100 euros bill was put on the table next to the four others.

Alya gaped at all of that money. She could count on her right hand the times she had seen a 100 euros bill; they were not common, and she certainly did not own any. She observed it standing out from the greyish mess that were the 5 euros bills in all of its green glory, and was tempted to reach out and touch it, turn it around to see its other side.

Money. Chloé wasted it in all kinds of ways, from bribery to fulfilling her capricious desires. This time, however, she planned to use it to prove herself, to prove just how confident she was regarding how she would humiliate everyone involved in the bet.

She was a vile person.

Alix must have been thinking something similar, but said nothing of it. Instead, she smirked. “I guess we are done, then. The first one who manages to get a consensual kiss from Adrien and has proof of it will take all of the money.”

“Wait,” Kim asked. He had been unusually quiet for a long time, so it was almost weird to hear him speak again. “What do you mean with proof?”

“I don’t know,” Alix shrugged. “A picture, someone else that has seen you kissing him… that kind of stuff. It’s just to make sure that nobody cheats.”

Everyone’s stares lingered far too long on Chloé.

“And since we are at it,” the pink-haired girl continued. “Does anyone else feel like joining? I mean, we are talking about 120 euros here, more if more people join in. It’s a lot of money.” Her eyes travelled around the class. “Mylène? You want in?”

Asking Mylène out of everybody else was clearly not a smart idea, so Alya was not surprised when she saw Ivan pull the girl closer to him and send a murderous glare at the skater girl.

The latter didn’t look too impressed by his angry outburst however, just annoyed.

“Okay, I get it. You and your girlfriend aren’t interested. Chill.” She turned towards the others. “Anyone else?”

There was silence in the classroom, and not a surprising one: many of their classmates were still confused by the whole bet, or were trying to process the proposal. It was kind of unrealistic to expect most of them to be on-board with the idea since it had taken Alya and the others a good ten minutes of arguing in order to barely accept it.

Thankfully the other half of the class, the one that was not confused, was a creative one.

“Nath?” Rose’s little voice echoed in the room.

The boy almost jumped in his seat once he realised that he had been addressed. His hand shot for his red hair, suddenly trying to position it so it would not cover his left eye completely. He watched as everyone turned to him, suddenly interested in whatever he was doing (drawing, probably), and Alya almost snickered at the sight of the redhead’s face.

“Err…” he was as pale as a ghost, and looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. “Um. Yes?”

“Weren’t you saving up money for a video-game or something like that?” Rose offered him a kind smile. “I think I heard you and Juleka talking about it. Was it…  _Xeno_ , uh….  _Xeno_   _Stories_?”

“ _Xenoblade Chronicles 2_ ,” he corrected her. He eyed Juleka for a little bit before asking: “What… What does that have to do with this?”

“You could definitely win enough money to buy that if you joined in!” The girl jumped a little, excited for her friend. “And you really, really want that game, Nath! You should do this!”

“I… I am not sure I really want to and… uh, the game is really expensive, soo…” Nathaniel’s face was getting red now, and it was pretty clear that he was trying to throw out excuses for not participating.

“Actually,” Max suddenly said, causing everyone to turn towards him. “You would be able to buy much more than just the game with those 120 euros. The regular physical copy of  _Xenoblade Chronicles 2_  is worth 59.99 euros right now, meaning that you’d be able to get the limited edition of the game for 89 euros if you won the bet and used that money instead.”  He took out his phone as he spoke, ignoring the confused stares of his classmates and Nathaniel’s despair. “Said limited edition, of course, consists of steel box, regular game box, soundtrack CD, and a book featuring all concept art and designs of the game. That said, you’d still have 31 euros to spend after purchasing it, which could be used on a  _Nintendo Switch_  case. The prices of a case consequently vary on the type you would choose, but they tend to be from 15 to 25 euros.”

He paused for a moment and stared at Nathaniel, who only had the strength to blink at him in return. It was pretty clear that the redhead was out of words because of his stupor and embarrassment, but Max interpreted his silence differently, and proceeded to offer him more of his advice. “But you might want to invest your money in something different, like the  _Xenoblade_  themed pro-controller. In that case, you would have to purchase the regular game and use some money of your own, as the total cost of the game and the controller would be of-”

“Jeez, Max,” Alix interrupted him, and the entire class sighed in relief. “You sure have given a lot of thought about this, you want to join in as well?”

Max gave her a deadpan look. “I already own the game.”

“Meaning?”

He adjusted his glasses. “Meaning that I don’t need the money for a purchase similar to Nathaniel’s.”

“You are not interested, then.” Alix shrugged. “Got it.”

“Incorrect. I  _am_ interested. I just don’t want to participate.”

Alya was not facing Alix at the moment, but she could imagine her eyes rolling in the back of her head. The small girl promptly decided to ignore her friend – and really, it was for his own good unless he wanted to be punched in the face – but he called out to her.

“Wait! Don’t you want to know why that is?”

“No. I really don’t give a fuck about it. But you know who does?” A wild smile appeared on her face. “Kim.”

Just as Max’s eyes shined with interest, Kim’s darkened. His hand was roughly grabbed, and he was pushed up towards his classmate’s desk. “W-wait!” he cried, but it was too late. A cold hand pushed him down, forcing him to sit next to the class genius.

The hand lingered on his shoulder, threatening and steady as Alix spoke. “You can tell him all about it.”

She turned around, abandoning her friend to a series of numbers and equations that she didn’t care about. She approached Alya again, and she thought she could hear Max say something along the lines of  _‘making an equation for realising your chances of success at this bet is rather simple.’_

“So,” Alix sighed. “I’m getting pretty tired, so let’s wrap this up quickly. Sabrina, Alya, and Marinette: are you joining the bet as well or not?”

There was a moment of silence before Chloé’s annoying voice caught the four by surprise. “Sabrina says no, of course.”

The girl looked at her best friend, slightly confused. “I-I do?”

“Well, duh!” the blonde snapped. “I don’t need you of all people to go after Adrien. Not because you’d be a threat of course, just because I might need you to help me, and what kind of friend would you be if you didn’t do that?”

Alya gritted her teeth at that vile, low, awful, manipulative little speech, but Sabrina was already sold.

“Oh, right!” she smiled. “Don’t worry Chloé, I’ll help you!”

The blogger really felt like jumping on Chloé and teach her what it meant to respect people, namely her only friend, but Alix’s glare stopped her from doing so. She was tired and probably about to snap, and Alya really did not want to anger her, as she had learnt to fear the small skater. She consequently proceeded to think about what to answer her.

Did she want to join in in the bet? Not particularly, to be really honest. The money would have been nice to have of course, but it simply didn’t seem worth it in her opinion; she had never been interested in Adrien in that way, and she doubted that she would ever be. Of course, the little talk she had with Rose had encouraged her to make an effort to learn something more about the boy, but she didn’t feel like she needed the bet in order to do that. She could have just invited him out for lunch sometime later in the week, or maybe tried to talk to him while he was alone more often. And also, she knew how upset Marinette would get if she ever tried to get anywhere near her crush with romantic intentions; she didn’t want to ruin her friendship with the girl and hurt her that way.

“Thanks, but no,” she ultimately decided. “I’m good.”

The only one left to answer was Marinette, and she knew it. She seemed troubled, her hands nervously clatched onto one another.

“I… I don’t think I want to.”

She glanced up, and was greeted by her friends’ confused faces.

“You don’t  _‘think?’_ ” Chloé asked, and she seemed genuinely surprised for a second there.

Alya was as well, in a sense; she had expected Marinette to try to join in after everyone else out of fear of them actually getting close to Adrien. After all, her friend was competitive and jealous when it came to what she really cared about, but she had behaved differently for some reason.

“Are you sure?” Alix was eyeing the other girl with suspicious eyes.

But Marinette was confident with her answer now.

“Yes. I don’t want to participate; I still don’t agree with this bet, so I won’t be taking part in it. I would like you guys to stop it all together to be honest, but I know that you won’t at this point.”

Alya’s eyebrows shot up. Resignation was something that she had not expected from someone like Mari.

“Suit yourself.” Alix shrugged.

“Wait a second,” Chloé said. For some reason, she was almost as surprised as Alya to see Marinette backing out of the bet. She probably hadn’t expected her rival to do something like that. “You had no problem talking back to me when  _I_ said I didn’t agree with it. Are you planning something behind our backs, Dupain-Cheng?”

“I am not doing anything,” Marinette answered quickly. “I never liked the bet, I just didn’t agree with the way you were talking to everyone; that’s why I lashed out at you.”

Alya knew her friend well enough, and knew that what she had just said roughly translated to ‘ _I saw Chloé and completely lost it and just HAD to disagree with everything she was saying’_ in Marinette-speak. It was honestly a sentiment that the two shared together, so she could understand her.

The bell finally rang, saving Alix and the others from a possible argument between Chloé and Marinette, and Alya watched the latter as she headed toward her seat. Even though she had seemed content with her decision, she couldn’t help but feel that there was something wrong with her friend, and that she was probably going to suffer while looking at the rest of the class getting closer to the guy she was crushing on.

She must have been staring pretty intently at her cutie of a desk-mate, because she turned to her with that usual, sweet smile of hers.

“Something on your mind, Alya?”

Marinette’s delicate hands placed her schoolbooks on her desk, and Alya imitated her.

“I think,” Alya said after clicking her tongue, “that you will regret this.”

“Oh, come on,” she pouted. “I won’t.”

As usual, Alya knew better, but said nothing. Her friend had already made up her mind, and she knew that she could be pretty stubborn.

“Don’t give me that look! I never liked the bet to begin with! And that’s not how I want to get closer to Adrien,” Marinette explained. “One day… he will fall for me. And when that happens, I don’t want it to be because of a dumb bet that somebody else set up.”

Alya was about to tell her that she should have just used the opportunity she had been given, but Ms. Bustier entered the room.

Now forced to look ahead of her as she greeted her teacher, Alya’s gaze lingered on the empty desk in front of hers, wondering where Nino was. She had seen him this morning, but had quickly left with the excuse that he had to use the restroom.

She had not thought of how Nino would have reacted to all of…  _this_. Unfortunately, she knew him too well to not know that he would hate the bet: Nino was protective when it came to his best bud, and would not forgive Alix easily. That was going to be something that she would discuss with him later, when he would actually bless her and the rest of the classroom with his presence.

In the meantime, she had plenty of time to listen to Ms. Bustier’s lesson, all the while pretending to ignore the hushed-up whispers coming from behind her. She didn’t need to look at her classmates to imagine what they were doing: she knew what their competitive faces looked like, even little Rose’s, and knew that they were all getting ready for the game to begin, whether they were spectators or players.

Regarding herself… well, her phone was fully charged and its memory was decently empty; she was ready to have the experience of a lifetime, and to make sure to record it on camera.

**Author's Note:**

> Boy oh boy do I suck at writing dialogue-packed scenes. They come out wordy and not much happens at all.  
> Just so that we make this clear: kisses won’t kill or hurt or do anything bad to pretty model boy. You have my word on that and I think that 8k words were enough to make that clear.
> 
> This whole thing is pretty bad… I wrote this for fun of course, but it’s still pretty terrible, so I might end up deleting it, I guess. I mean, the piglet joke is going to haunt me in my nightmares probably, along with all the Disney channel references, but I didn’t have the heart of taking them away because of how utterly bad they were.
> 
> Also, it’s important for me to say that I’m writing this as fluff and, as such, this story should not be considered realistic or accurate. The interactions between characters and the events portrayed are heavily inspired by shoujo manga as of now, so be prepared. Also if you think that something this dumb is canon-compliant and has an actual place in the ml timeline (which is already pretty vague on its own), then you are sorely mistaken.
> 
> I just wanted to write a fic in which I could have explored multiple ships and characters all in one go while having a good laugh. Of course, if I somehow end up offending anyone with my writing, please let me know.
> 
> So. If I DON’T end up deleting this… Enjoy a fic where everybody is thirsty for adrien, I guess.


End file.
